Originally published at Southern Cross
By Cindy Wooden
ROME— Wearing red vestments for the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Pope Francis knocked on the door of the church in Rome’s Rebibbia prison complex and walked over its threshold.
After reciting a formal prayer before opening the prison’s Holy Door on Dec. 26, the pope took the microphone back to explain that he had inaugurated the Holy Year 2025 by opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.
“I wanted the second Holy Door to be the one here, at a prison,” he said. “I wanted all of us, inside or out, to have an opportunity to throw open the doors of our hearts and understand that hope does not disappoint.”
Members of the penitentiary police band played the official hymn of the Holy Year 2025 when the pope arrived, while about 300 people waited inside the church; they included just over 100 women and men serving time at Rebibbia, some of their family members, volunteers, prison staff, Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri and officials of the Italian justice department.
The door of the prison’s Church of Our Father was decorated with a pine garland with white roses and silver-tinted pinecones. Inside the church, a
